THE MANCHURIAN QUESTION.
(Daily Press, 29th June.) The statement which Lord CRANBORNE made in the House of Commons last week, as mentioned in REUTER'S despatch of the 25th instant, is not likely to reassure anyone with regard to the position in Manchuria, According to the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, the Chinese Government has intimated that arrangements between China and Russia are being negotiated which will preserve Manchuria for China without loss of sovereignty, the treaty rights of other Powers being respected. The idea cannot for a moment be enter tained that this implies any change of attitude on the part of the Chinese Govern. ment which will compel Russia to act up to the spirit of her promises about Manchuria, China's assurances remain of equal value to what they have borne in the past, and as before it rests with others than China to secure any future for Manchuria thau that of a mere province of Asiatic Russia Tuese others than China bave all along been three Powers only, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States. Of these the United States have been a doubtful
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
¡July 4, 1903. attitude of the Japanese Government, the Mongolia, we are surprisingly in the dark. same journal continues, while Viceroy Rumours reach us from tin: to time of CHANG CHIH-TUNG is strongly opposed to what the Russians are doing about the the Manchurian
treaty and is Mongolian railway, the next step after the said to be disgusted with the mere cumpletion of the Manchurian line toward verbal measures which have satisfied Japan the absorption of North China. But no of late. The attitude of the Japanese Gov- | first-hand information is available; ernment is also the subject of's' rong comment is there likely to
Buy, if Russia in Japan itself, and we see from a despatch, can help it, until too late. We need dated the 24 h June, from the Tokyo corres not place much faith in the Japanese pondent of the North-China Daily News that rumour of five additional clauses added seven Professors of the Imperial University to the Manchurian Convention, whereby have memorialise the Japanese Foreign Mongolia is to be inclu led in the scope Office on the importance of speedily settling of that treaty. Russia need not act go the Manchurian problem. They allege that openly, not to any so indiscretly, as that. the modern complicatio is in the fiell of She will try to get her footing firm before Foreign Affairs
due chiefly. to she admits through any written document failure to utilise occasions as they have that she has got into Mongolia. As for arisen. They cite first the retrocession of what is happoning on the Corean frontier, the Linotung Peninsula, when Japan failed we have more information and fresh items to ask for a guarantee against future arrive by every mail from the North. alienation; secondly, the German seizure Russia's action in stopping all native-owned of Kiaochau, which might have been averted rafts on the Yalu, on the ground that she by a timely protest on the part of Japan; has a lease of all the forests on the river is and thirdly, the neglect to include Russia's characteristic. Of course the Russian Manchurian forces in the arrangement for Minister at Seoul has promise that the rafts the military evacuation of North China. shall be returned, and like the other diploma- They further allege that Japan's armaments tic representatives of his nation he is ari are probably stronger than Russia's im- honourable man.' These honourable men, quantity, and we cannot feel reassured pediately available forces, but the inferiority however, would not meet with success in when we read in the latest number which is only temporary; and insist on the their efforts if they had not so frequently has reached us of the San Francisco necessity of separating the negotiations as the advantage of dealing with the diploma- Chronicle a sintement like the following :-
to the Manchurian from those as to the tically blind and dumb. The most we can So far as the trade interests of the Corean problem, and declare that con- hope for is that with Sir ERNEST SATOW's United States in Manchuria are considering the perpetual nature of Russia's return to Peking the British attitud: will "cerned, it is decidedly preferable for aggression, her tenure of Manchuria will be firmly declared and that Japan's the territory to be in Russian hands. certainly followed by enterprises intentions will at the same time be made When China was in undisputed control against Corea, which will surely be the evident. A solution of the whole question our trade there was indifferent and the preface to a further advance southward. cannot be delayed. No one is so foolish
now prospects were not good for any improve. This, it must be admitted, is a very out-
as to imagine that Russia is to "ment under her administration of affairs. spoken statement as coming from Professors be forced to quit Manchuria.
The poiut Since Russia has been in temporary
of the Imperial University, and taken in at issue is, Where is her expansion to stop? " control
our trade there has steadily conjunction with the general attitude of the It is useless to argue that she has already increased. If the country is restored Japanese Press gives an indubitable indi- more than she can digest and must there- to China our commerce with it will cation of the state of popular feeling in fore cease swallowing. That reason never probably dwindle to what it was formerly. Japan over the situation in North-east yet prevented any empire from following If, on the other hand, Russia uses the
Asia. It is evident, too, that an attempt is the absorbing policy as long as it had only new disorders as an excuse for asserting being made to force the Japanese Govern- weaker nations barring the way. permanent sovereignty over it, we will ment's baud and elicit some declaration of have no valid cause for complaint, for policy before China signs the Manchurian the country's resources will be developed greenent, or perhaps we should rather say “and our trade will be materially benefited the last of the Manchurian agreements. With regard to this agreement the latest by the change." Our San Francisco contemporary evidently has full faith in news appears to be that furnished by the Russia's bona fides. We should not be Peking correspondent of our Shanghai surprised, however, if owing to friction morning contemporary, which we give in between the United States and Russia another column. According to this corres- over the Kischeneff affair, the temporarily St. Petersburg awaiting Russia's signature. pondent the new agreement is already at pro-Russian organs in the States were to
nedify their views with regard to
The exact terms are said to be unknown, the British and Japanese Ministers seeming placid acceptance of the annexation of
'quite in the dark" about them and Prince Machuria to the dominious of the T a". With regard to the other
CHING keeping all information about them two Powers
to himself. An explanation of this weak chir-fly interested, there has never been any Chinese official's ever-increasing disposition doubt that Japan is not prepared to see Manchuria Russianised without any com- pensation to herself, whilst the return of STERNEST SATOW to his st as H.B.M.'s Minister at Peking suggests the hope that Great Britain will also obtain some strong guarantees with regard to the a Iministra tion of Manchuria and the maintenance of the present state of affairs in North China. We cannot yet, it is evident, expect a speedy settlement of the Manchurian question. It has already been settiell
on paper heli.
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(Daily Press, 80th June.) We read in one of the leading Japanes native papers that Prince CHING is reported to be at his wits end regarding the negotia tions with M. LESSAE, and that there is no knowing how the Manchurian affair may turu The Chinese Government and Prince UNING are perplexed as to real
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THE PRICE OF FOOD,
(Daily Pr 88, 2ud July ) In a Shanghai contemporary last week an allusion was made, in an article dealing with the fall in silver and the rise in prices, to the comparative cost of food-stuffs in Shanghai now and some years back. It be interested to know to what extent the suggests itself to us that our readers may
cost of food has risen in Hongkong during the past few years. For purposes of com- parisou we take the market-list published in the last week of June, 1893, and that dated last Thursday, and select from these lists some of the most common articles of diet. In comparing the two it must be remembered that the catty is equal to one pound and a third avoirdupois. In 1893 the price of beef, sirloin and price cut, was 12 to 13 cents a catty ;-now it is 17
toward Russia is furnished in the same correspondent's despatch, and we have no has been partly suggested some time ago. reason to doubt its correctness; indeed it Prince CHING, like so many of the diplo matists of his country, only excels in cents a pound. Mutton, chop or leg, was the art of procrastinating, and he is bound then 15 to 16 cents a catty; now it to yield to the strongest pressure. We is 24 cents a pound. Park was then 14 cannot tell what pressure Britain and Japan to 16 cents a catty; no. it is 18 cents are exerting at te present moment, but a pound. Veal was in 1893 12 to 13 the strength of Russia's pressure is obvious. cents a catty; it now costs 16 couts a It is not imaginable that the signature pound. The rise in the price of poultry short'y of some form of convention ab ut
13 even more striking. Chicken was Manchuria is to be avoided. Nor is it advis. quoted in the 1893 market list at 18 cents able, in the interests of the world's peace, a catty, whereas the present prica is 35 that the present situation should be cents a pound, and the best fowls have risen longed. The Mauchurian question should by all means be settled. As long as it continues open, Russia has the opportunity and naturally is not slow to avail herself of it-of establishing a foothold both in Mongolia and Corea. With regard to
pro-
from 20 cuts a catty to 28 cents a pound. Ducks, formerly 13 cents a catty, are now 22 cents a pound; turkey Eocks, formerly 40 cents a catty, are now 70 cents a pound. Eggs have more than doubled in price. In 1893 they cost 9 to 10 cents a